It would be helpful to have a button for ‘priority stocking’ at the trader post.
Many times I have had traders arrive to buy items, but miss being able to sell because I have multiple items being stocked. My workers just stock items based on order of entry (apparently).
To be clear, this is not a request for a ‘priority sell’ button similar to the ‘priority buy’. This would only allow the selection of what item you want your workers to stock first.
Here are some tips to avoid this situation.
First, traveling merchants always appear at the same time of year so you can prepare your supplies in advance. Start preparing in winter.
Second, place warehouses near the trading post and set minimum limits on resources for sale. The trading post is supplied only by your merchants, so having a warehouse nearby will significantly speed up the process, and laborers will deliver goods closer to your trading post from far away.
By the way there is a button to cancel task. So you can cancel all tasks except the one with higher priority.
Thank you for your suggestions. While they do increase efficiency and reduce stocking times, I’m not sure though that they address my feedback.
I do have warehouses located next to my trading post.
I’ve played around with the trading post controls since I posted.
I’ve found the ‘keep in stock’ button can be a useful tool for maintaining selling stock, but it has it’s limitations. The item needs to be one that you are overproducing specifically for sale so you can set a stocking level that does not deplete what is needed by your citizens.
The other items need to be manually adjusted based on your availability, since quantities of items vary month to month and year to year.
In addition, while traders typically arrive during the spring, what they offer to buy/sell, their cash, and their prices are variable. It’s obviously better to sell at high prices and often better to not sell when trader buy prices are low.
Since the maximum number of clerks available at the trading post is four, it is not uncommon for there to be several of them, both auto and manual stocking, in action when traders arrive. Depending on the variables of the trader (total cash, selections, purchase price) some of the items I have being stocked will be more desirable to sell than others.
A priority stocking button would provide some control over which item being stocked gets filled first, therefore giving some control over what you sell before the trader departs.